One word describes Gavin Newsom live on Twitch playing Fortnite: Cringe | Opinion
Gavin Newsom has earned many titles in his life: mayor, governor, and politician. But last Friday, during a livestream on the platform Twitch, he revealed his true self — the quintessential awkward dad.
Newsom played the video game Fortnite: Battle Royale rather clumsily for the entire 56 minutes that he was with a streamer who goes by the name ConnorEatsPants. The two played in a last team standing, winner-take-all game and didn’t do too much winning.
It was beyond evident that Newsom hadn’t played Fortnite in his life. He was playing on a Nintendo Switch, which I’d bet was a loaner from his kids. And if I may go full nerd, it’s one of the worst consoles for Fortnite, unless you’re a madman or in Newsom’s case, a desperate politician trying to appeal to a demographic he has nothing in common with. Usually, this display from a novice gamer tickles me. It’s fun to watch new players try to figure out how to hold the controller, which buttons make them move, and why the controls are labeled with letters.
But Newsom was no kid naively trying to figure out a popular game. He’ll go on any talk show, podcast, or livestream at this point. He’s personable, but not exactly authentic and he can’t help being himself.
During the livestream, Newsom couldn’t name a Pokémon when asked which one was his favorite. He could’ve just said Pikachu. Everyone knows Pikachu.
As a gamer myself, I also took offense to the disrespect Newsom had for video games.
“I was in the Intellivision generation,” Newsom said on the livestream as if it were a brag. Most gamers know about the 1979 console that had a budding rivalry with Activision.
If I had a nickel for every time an older person who rarely plays video games brings up how they were around during the days of Pong, I’d be rich. That’s like bragging about how you never upgraded from Apple iOS 1.
“You’re (into) Fortnite and all this s—t,” Newsom said while getting shot at in the game.
Newsom, playing under the unoriginal username CAGovXL, was about as coordinated as a cow on a roller rink. He was eliminated easily and had to have Connor revive him constantly.
We all knew he was going to run around topics like trans issues and the state of Gaza, but the real golden moments were watching him try to understand how to play Fortnite. It was like watching him read upside down.
Newsom’s appearance on Twitch, as hilarious as it was, also marks a new age in American politics.
Livestreaming to the Presidency
It used to be that county fairs were the stomping grounds for politicians to look down-to-earth. They would eat some sort of fried dessert or greasy turkey leg while reporters asked them softball questions and photographers snapped shots of them smiling.
The old political stomping grounds have changed from the county fair to streaming platforms like Twitch, a service where gamers livestream themselves playing games like Fortnite and Marvel Rivals.
One of the first politicians to make this format famous was New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or AOC, back in 2016, when she appeared with other Twitch streamers to play the social deduction game, Among Us.
There have also been blunders, as when Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, livestreamed his playthrough of the action role-playing game Path of Exile 2. He was so bad at it that he died while fighting the tutorial-level boss.
Newsom’s Twitch appearance might have been meant to make him look relatable, but it only showed what he’s trying to be instead of actually being. The more politicians try to meet voters in digital spaces they barely understand, the more obvious it becomes that they’re playing on someone else’s server.
Newsom’s Fortnite debut stands as a reminder that no matter how many platforms politicians jump to, you can’t speed-run authenticity.
This story was originally published October 8, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "One word describes Gavin Newsom live on Twitch playing Fortnite: Cringe | Opinion."
